Heavy mar1juana Use Doesn't Damage Brain

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20030701/heavy-mar1juana-use-doesnt-damage-brain

Heavy mar1juana Use Doesn't Damage Brain
Analysis of Studies Finds Little Effect From Long-Term Use
By Sid Kirchheimer
WebMD Medical News

July 1, 2003 -- Long-term and even daily mar1juana use doesn't appear to cause permanent brain damage, adding to evidence that it can be a safe and effective treatment for a wide range of diseases, say researchers.

The researchers found only a "very small" impairment in memory and learning among long-term mar1juana users. Otherwise, scores on thinking tests were similar to those who don't smoke mar1juana, according to a new analysis of 15 previous studies.

In those studies, some 700 regular mar1juana users were compared with 484 non-users on various aspects of brain function -- including reaction time, language and motor skills, reasoning ability, memory, and the ability to learn new information.

Surprising Finding

"We were somewhat surprised by our finding, especially since there's been a controversy for some years on whether long-term cannabis use causes brain damage," says lead researcher and psychiatrist Igor Grant, MD.

"I suppose we expected to see some differences in people who were heavy users, but in fact the differences were very minimal."

The mar1juana users in those 15 studies -- which lasted between three months to more than 13 years -- had smoked mar1juana several times a week or month or daily. Still, researchers say impairments were less than what is typically found from using alcohol or other drugs.

"All study participants were adults," says Grant, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

"However, there might be a different set of circumstances to a 12-year-old whose nervous system is still developing."

10 States OK mar1juana Use

Grant's analysis, published in the July issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, comes as many states consider laws allowing mar1juana to be used to treat certain medical conditions. Earlier this year, Maryland became the 10th state to allow mar1juana use to relieve pain and other symptoms of AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, and other conditions -- joining Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Medicinal mar1juana is available by prescription in the Netherlands and a new mar1juana drug is expected to be released in Great Britain later this year. In the U.S. and elsewhere, Marinol, a drug that is a synthetic form of mar1juana and contains its active ingredient, THC, is available by prescription to treat loss of appetite associated with weight loss in AIDS patients.

Grant says he did the analysis to help determine long-term toxicity from long-term and frequent mar1juana use. His center is currently conducting 11 studies to determine its safety and efficacy in treating several diseases.

"This finding enables us to see a marginal level of safety, if those studies prove that cannabis can be effective," Grant tells WebMD. "If we barely find this effect in long-term heavy users, then we are unlikely to see deleterious side effects in individuals who receive cannabis for a short time in a medical setting, which would be safer than what is practiced by street users."

Grant's findings come as no surprise to Tod Mikuriya, MD, former director of non-classified mar1juana research for the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies and author of The mar1juana Medical Handbook: A Guide to Therapeutic Use. He is currently president of the California Cannabis Medical Group, which has treated some 20,000 patients with medicinal mar1juana and Marinol.

'Highly Effective Medicine'

"I just re-published a paper of the first survey for mar1juana toxicity done in 1863 by the British government in India that was the most exhaustive medical study of its time in regards to possible difficulties and toxicity of cannabis. And it reached the same conclusion as Grant," Mikuriya tells WebMD.

"This is merely confirming what was known over 100 years ago, as well as what was learned by various government findings doing similar research -- mar1juana is not toxic, but it is a highly effective medicine."

In fact, mar1juana was available as a medicinal treatment in the U.S. until the 1930s.

Lester Grinspoon, MD, a retired Harvard Medical School psychiatrist who studied medicinal mar1juana use since the 1960s and wrote two books on the topic, says that while Grant's finding provides more evidence on its safety, "it's nothing that those of us who have been studying this haven't known for a very long time.

"mar1juana is a remarkably safe and non-toxic drug that can effectively treat about 30 different conditions," he tells WebMD. "I predict it will become the aspirin of the 21st century, as more people recognize this."
SOURCES: The Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, July 2003. Igor Grant, MD, professor of psychiatry, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; director, UCSD Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research Center. Tod Mikuriya, MD, president, the California Cannabis Research Medical Group, Oakland; former director of non-classified mar1juana research, the National Institute of Mental Health Center for Narcotics and Drug Abuse Studies. Lester Grinspoon, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston; author, mar1juana: The Forbidden Medicine and Marihuana Reconsidered.
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So these people need to get a life?